Diabolique (1996)

Diabolique is Jeremiah Chechik's 1996 revamped version of the 1955 French film noir tale of two teachers at a boys school conspiring to kill the headmaster (played in the remake by Chazz Palminteri of Jade and The Usual Suspects). The three assemble an intriguing triangle of revenge and deceit as the headmaster's abused and humiliated wife and mistress team up to get even. Mia Baran is the fragile wife with a delicate heart condition, portrayed by Isabelle Adjani (Queen Margot), and Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) is the plotting, contemptuous mistress. Together they set out to wreak an unfortunate revenge, but as the story reveals itself, miscalculations abound as hidden agendas and secret lives are unexpectedly exposed. Chechik's new look and timeless setting give film noir audiences something neoteric and seducing to play with. A welcomed change to the film's story line is the fresh addition of Kathy Bates as a daunting private detective. Fans of Stone's will not be disappointed with the latest version of her "I-could-give-a-damn smoldering broad" technique and anyone not yet familiar with Chazz Palminteri will love watching him succeed as the ultimately despicable headmaster. --Michele Goodson Amazon.com

Review of Diabolique with Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani

I've seen the film before, and the copy I received has exactly what I was looking for. It was delivered in a timely manner, too. October 26, 2008

DIABOLIQUE

An intriguing movie. Chazz Palminteri and Kathy Bates literally "steal the show" in this one. Sharon Stone seems to have a cigarette in her mouth or hand every scene and donminates over Isabelle Adjani's character - who doesn't have a mind of her own and is a wuss. Some of the scenes keep you on the edge of your seat, though. Couldn't find a copy in the stores, but am ALWAYS able to find what I want on AMAZON! Thanks! valilly September 26, 2007

Underrated, A Good Remake

"Diabolique" has the makings of a bad remake. They kept the French name for the title, it (slightly) changes the ending, and it's written by Don Roos, a writer/director better known for comedies like "The Opposite of Sex" and "Happy Endings." While "Diabolique" isn't better than the original, but it is good and a nice cast and some suspenseful moments fill it out. French actress Isabelle Adjani plays Mia Baran, a woman with a heart condition who is the owner of a boy's school. Her husband Guy (Chazz Palminteri) is the headmaster, who is abusive to Mia and openly has an affair with the principal Nicole (Sharon Stone, who looks hot). Sick of what they have to put up with, Nicole and Mia plot to kill Guy. The plan is simple (sort of idiotic, but simple);
They go to Nicole's house, bring Guy over, drown him in the bathtub, smuggle his body back to the school, and than dump his body in the swimming pool. Everything goes well, but the tension of the body being found is driving everyone crazy. Soon, the pool is drained and no body is found...And the women believe they're being blackmailed by an unseen presence, since the suit they killed him in turns up, as well as pictures of them hauling the body out of Nicole's house. One of the movie's creepiest moments (it was in the original too) comes when the cameraman that are at the school are filming the children and see, what appears to be, Guy standing in a window overlooking the school. In the original, it was the school picture where he was seen in the window but here it is just as effective. Kathy Bates brings a charming performance as the detective hired by Mia to find Guy, who suspects something wrong immediately. "Diabolique" does attempt to improve upon the original in making Stone's character more sexy, cold, intelligent, and witty. Roos has mostly dealt in writing comedies, so Stone has several funny lines ("You're dead, this is heaven, and I'm the Virgin Mary."). Palminteri is good casting for the husband and in this film he's a lot more sadistic than the original. "Diabolique" will, if nothing else cause people to gain interest in seeing the original (if they haven't already). But it is a worthy remake that's definitely better than remakes like "Psycho" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning." Stone is sexy,
Adjani is superb, Bates is great, and Palminteri is perfectly cast. The script is pretty solid, it's a good companion piece to the original, and it's worth seeing.

GRADE: B+ January 8, 2007

The context has been unluckily erased

This is a remake of the black and white adaptation of Boileau-Narcejac's novel. The shift from the French context to the American decor is nothing but a change of settings and it adds nothing. But it is extremely well built as a thriller and this American version adds a clearly stated sexual relationship between the two main women, the plotters. It also emphasizes this feminine presence by making the « inspector » a woman, which is unthinkable in the French context of the 1950s. And this woman can become an accomplice in the final cover-up, the final assassination of the ressuscitated victim, out of feminine understanding. The context of this let's say prep-school for boys is hardly described and does not correspond to the original French school for delinquents. We never get this idea that the kids are imprisoned and that the school is a reservation for anonymous survivors ghetto-ised out of the social war that is raging outside. And that is such « schools » that both the conservative right and the socialist left are asking for in France right now to take care of suburban young rebels who call themselves barbarians or the natives of the republic, be they black, brown, grey or white, which does not in anyway matter.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne
June 9, 2006

not bad for a remake

This version of a classic has been updated and pretty well.
Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani look so much like the main players in the original it couldn't have been a mistake casting them in this.
I don't know where the other reviewers are coming from. This is a story of cheating, lust, deciet and murder. Of course Stone is going to play that well. That is the momentum for the plot, without that, there is no story.
Having seen the original a number of times, all I can say is I wish they would have kept the original ending. It was by far better than this.
That is why I only gave it 4 stars.
Word to the wise.... if you like twisted mysteries that are convoluted, you should like this. But do see the original first, it's definitely worth it. This one is a decent remake. September 4, 2005

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